


Swimming Lessons

by drcalvin



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bodyswap, Friendship, Gen, Master Usopp's Amazing Swimming School of Amazeness, Post-Timeskip, Swimming, moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-28
Updated: 2013-06-28
Packaged: 2017-12-16 10:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drcalvin/pseuds/drcalvin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With the reluctant help of their new ally, Luffy might finally be able to fulfill his old dream of swimming in the sea. But who'd be foolhardy enough to lend his body to Luffy of all people? And who is the poor sucker stuck trying to teach a hammer to swim...?</p><p>[Set loosely after Punk Hazard, minimal spoilers regarding Trafalgar Law]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swimming Lessons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aech_fic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aech_fic/gifts).



> A gift for Aech

Sunlight on the sea and a deserted island; barely more than a sandy stretch of beach and a grove of a few palm trees and stringy bushes.

Too small to have a magnetic presence, the Thousand Sunny would have run aground on this low islet if it hadn't been for Nami's excellent eyesight. Now, though, they can anchor and use the fact that no sea-chart nor compass in the world can show them, to let Franky do some necessary maintenance on the hull.

It has been generally decided that their illustrious captain, Monkey D Luffy, does not need to be around for that. Especially not when Franky applies the final coat of paint. 

"Whooa! You look like a statue Zoro!" Luffy stretched out his arms, then pulled a fist, grinning at the bulging muscles of his – highly temporary – body. 

"Not too bad yourself, Captain," Zoro said flicked his bared midriff and the washboard-like stretch of abdominal muscles on.

"Yeah, but I can't get all shaped like Zoro unless I'm fighting," Luffy said trying a one-legged pose. "Hoo-chaa!"

"That's Chopper's thing, idiot," Zoro said, a moment before Luffy overbalanced fell over on his side. "Oi! Watch the swords!"

"You watch the hat!"

"I'm not the one trying to stand on my head, you rubbery bastard."

"Not right now!"

"This is so friggin' surreal," Usopp muttered from his seat beneath a parasol. He was tinkering with a few of his seed-pods, a collection of bowls and capsules spread around him, and he only occasionally glanced up to look at the body-switched captain and swordsman. Who were currently tussling over Zoro's swords, while Luffy – Zoro – while the one of them who knew _everything_ about being rubber was using the knowledge to his advantage by pulling his ignorant, and temporarily rubbery, opponent's face into all kind of weird shapes while giggling like a loon. 

It had been Luffy's idea, of course. Jealous that his friends had been through the _hilarious_ experience of playing in each others bodies (Hi-larious, Nami said and clenched her fist. You're laughing at my SUUUPER-PAIN! Franky wailed. Only Sanji seemed to agree, though he wisely kept his mouth shut.) Luffy had demanded that he also be given a try. Trafalgar Law, their uneasy hopefully-ally-and-not-a-secret-backstabber-(oh-who-was-he-kidding), was quick to shoot down the suggestion. Firstly, they never knew when a Marine ship, or worse, might show up. Second, he doubted that any of Luffy's crew would volunteer for a body-swap.

Nobody had volunteered.

Then Luffy sighed and poked the snoring Zoro with his sandal-clad foot. 

The conversation, as Law seemed to have understood it, going by his astonished face, had sounded something like this:

"Zzzn - Lemme alone."

"But Zoro..."

An annoyed huff.

A pair of crossed eyes and a stubborn look down at the sleeping man.

Their swordsman opened his remaining eye and glared at Luffy.

"No."

Luffy stared at the sea, with the wistful look he'd wear when sitting on the figurehead; although there was a tinge of something more, a melancholy he only rarely showed and never when gazing at the horizon.

"Just once?"

"Urgh." Zoro sat up, yawned and stretched. "Fine. This once." 

They both turned to look, expectantly, at Law. He stared back for a solid half minute, before he finally raised his eyebrow in the 'excuse me, I do not speak crazy Straw Hat language'-gesture already so familiar to the crew. 

Zoro's look intensified to a glare. "What? Better hurry up and swap us if we're going to be done before dinner."

There followed a lot of confused explanations, protests and rationalizations, and of course their captain got his wish in the end.

When Nami had at last taken pity on the befuddled Warlord, and explained, it had included surprisingly few words.

"Luffy never learned to swim, before..." She'd shrugged, and Law's perpetual frown cleared a bit. 

"Ah? Not even before he –" He gestured to his mouth, and most of the crew nodded; only Chopper, Brook and Luffy were busy, practicing synchronized swim strokes in the air. And Zoro had made use of the break to continue and catch up on his napping.

Not, Usopp had to admit, that he could blame him. Luffy's usual energy seemed to have grown even more at the prospect of actual swimming; he was currently attempting one-armed handstands (the swords having been relegated to a safe spot beneath Usopp's parasol) while Zoro was curiously stretching out his fingers and arms.

What with Sanji having to cook, Franky busy with the ship and Nami giving him such a 'don't even go there' look that his hair frizzed, Usopp had generously volunteered to be babysitter and lifeguard. Now they were on the other side of the island, the trees between them and the ship, and Usopp honestly didn't know if it was to keep Sanji from teasing Zoro about the faces Luffy was pulling with his body, to keep Luffy from suddenly developing an interest in the repainting or just so that Robin would have peace while creepily stare at Law, who had been _gently encouraged_ to stay on board, without being distracted by Luffy-as-Zoro's antics. Not that this puny distance would stop her if she really wanted to look, Usopp was not about to argue with Robin, no-sirree. 

"Are you done soon?" 

Zoro's grumpy question, so incongruous when said with Luffy's mouth (and shit, did he know how scary he made Luffy look like that? It was the glaring, Usopp thought, because Luffy only glared like that when things were really, really, crap-your-pants-and-pray scarily earnest) broke off his chain of thought.

"One moment, one moment," he promised. "I just need to take advantage of the sunlight for these Pop Greens! Are you guys ready?"

"YEAH!" Zoro – that was, Luffy, in Zoro's body – cart-wheeled past. "Come on, Usopp, let's do this!"

"Change to bathing shorts first." Zoro took up his white sword and held it up to his arm, apparently measuring something. "Harder to swim if you tangle in my coat."

"Um, are you sure you should do that?" Usopp whispered while he put his things away. "Sure Luffy's amazing, but he doesn't exactly have the, uh, muscle memory for sword-fighting."

"Hn. Nobody has the muscle-memory for Santoryu." Zoro weighed the sword and then grinned; it turned into an unusually sinister version of Luffy's usual cheerful smile, and Usopp reminded his knees that he was a brave warrior of the sea these days so would they please stop trembling? "Anyway," Zoro continued, "if there's anyone else who might possibly have the jaw muscles to even have a chance at this..."

"Heh, I guess that's true. Okay – Luffy, wanna start the swimming lesson?"

Usopp was almost plowed down by the enthusiastic, and heavy, captain. "Whooa, whoa, easy!" he gasped and hung on to Luffy's (well, Zoro's – ouch, his brain was hurting) arm before his captain threw himself into the sea headfirst. "Remember, just because Zoro knows how to swim in his body does not mean that you know!"

"It's okay!" Luffy seemed to almost vibrate. "I can FLOAT now!"

"Not that well," Zoro called, and the earnest note in his voice stopped even Luffy. 

Usopp glanced back, then squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to get rid of the frankly horrifying image of his captain yielding two swords, the third dangling from his sash. At least he still had the hat; even Luffy had more sense than to take his treasure into the sea.

"Usopp, you remember that too." Zoro pinched his (Luffy's) arm. "I guess you were a skinny little stick as a kid?" Judging from Luffy's pout, he had guessed correctly. "Heh, I figured. But I probably still have a lot less body-fat than you used to have. Of course I'm nothing like you, I'm can float in the sea, but I don't just bob back up like I used to when I was a brat."

"Don't worry," Usopp said, "that's why I had Franky make these." He jangled the bright blue airpillows; looking much like Chopper's, these had far larger straps to allow them to fit around Zoro's impressive biceps. 

"But I want to swim for real!"

"You will, you will," hopefully, "but first I gotta show you the strokes." Usopp cracked his knuckles and adopted a heroic pose, holding up the airpillows as if they were his kabuto. "In Master Usopp's Amazing Swimming School of Amazeness, ANYONE can learn to swim! Yeee-aah!"

Luffy's howl of enthusiasm and, perhaps even more, the little dance of joy he did at that, had had Zoro's hand twitch worryingly around the swords. Master Usopp, skilled not only in swimming but also in handling temperamental swordsmen, hurried his pupil into the water.

It became a... long... long... afternoon for Master Usopp. 

Luffy was an enthusiastic student. Despite Zoro's warning, his body seemed to move well enough in the water when Usopp took him through the basic moves. There was no risk of him getting tired and cramping up either; Usopp was certain that Zoro's body could have continued this level of exercise for at least three days after his own body had sunk to the bottom of the sea in utter exhaustion. (Not that Zoro would actually let him sink... although now he couldn't swim... Don't go there, Usopp, that way lies finding Robin's jokes actually funny). And Luffy listened intently to his instructions, and applied himself, with a level of seriousness he only rarely showed the crew. 

But when he said he couldn't swim – 

In the shallow water, it had worked decently enough. Usopp even dared hope they would be able to fulfill Luffy's unspoken dream, and return to the Thousand Sunny by sea. Except for his sudden attack of salt in the eyes (strangely enough this coinciding with Luffy's first successful attempt at floating. He had celebrated by giving a positive howl of joy and attacking Zoro with an impressive tackle-hug; it wasn't that Usopp hadn't ever seen _Luffy_ cry, but seeing Zoro almost sob with gratitude into an extremely uncomfortable Luffy's shoulder... Some things weren't meant for sniper eyes) the first steps had gone excellently. 

And then they had tried to continue to deeper waters. 

"Relax," Usopp told his pupil, "just take it easy like I showed you. Out, down and up!"

Luffy grinned at him; it was slightly less charming than usual when he had a badass scar over one eye, but still the brightest smile Usopp had ever seen. He grinned back, and lowered himself into the mild water.

The coral reefs sheltered the little sand islet from heavy waves and weather, Nami had said. She'd also promised that it made it almost impossible for any Sea King to come to these shallow waters, definitely not without the lookout on the Sunny spotting it's shadow before it reached their protected bay.

Usopp had gone ahead, before even letting Luffy into the water, and (using his masterful sniper skills, of course, and taking aim on two particular palm trees) he'd scouted a small area very carefully. He knew perfectly well that there was no sinkholes or surprising currents in this particular area; nevertheless, he'd aged easily three years when Luffy suddenly sank forward into the water, his smile growing too stiff. Usopp had flailed for him in panic, only to almost stumble himself; to all luck the water had still been only chest deep and he pulled Zoro's body upright.

"Are you all right?"

"Shishishi, don't worry!" Luffy grinned and showed him a few air-strokes. "Start like the dog, then do like the frog and finish like the whale, and then all over again! I remember!"

"Great!" Usopp let himself sink down to his knees again. "We'll try then – and keep close to me, and the beach at all time. Okay, swim!"

Luffy lowered himself into the water. Taking a deep breath, he put his hand together, stretched them out – Usopp frowned – and sank. Like a hammer.

Hauling him out, Usopp gave him a friendly slap on the back. "No worries! First time's never easy." 

Luffy spit out a mouthful of water, grinned, and got into the starting pose again. "This is nothing! Grandpa's fists were much harder than yours."

"Riiight... Well, try again. I'm here, just relax and –"

This time, Luffy practically dived beneath the water, legs flailing uselessly above the surface for a moment.

Usopp hauled him up.

"Maybe we need to try a bit more in shallow water," he said after another two attempts. "Just relax, Luffy, we have all day! Nothing to it as long as you focus on out, down and up."

Luffy coughed up a bit of water and shook his head so that the earrings jangled. "Sure! This is nothing!"

He laughed, and Usopp laughed in reply. He could almost physically feel the weight of awareness at him from the beech, and glanced back; Zoro stood with his two swords hanging low, the hat slid back to hang around his neck, and stared fixedly at them. 

Cupping his hands, Usopp called to him: "We're just getting the hang of it!"

"I'm learning a breast stroke!" Luffy added, giving Zoro a grin and a thumbs-up.

From the beach, they received a one-sword salute, before then Zoro turned back to his katas.

A few hours later, Zoro called them from the beach. It was a grateful Usopp who dragged himself out of the water, his fingers wrinkled like prunes and his legs tired to jelly. Luffy's steps were even heavier than his own, though he doubted it had anything to do with physical exhaustion.

They had managed, at the most successful attempt, exactly twelve strokes. 

When Luffy had tried to proclaim his success just as a wave hit him, and the ensuing coughing fit had Usopp hailing him back to the shallows again. Sure, Zoro was tough, but he was also not as used to inhaling sea-water as the accident-prone captain. Chopper was sure to have opinions if Usopp brought him back with pneumonia from this adventure.

At the beach, Zoro had opened the picnic basket and was already making his way through one of Sanji's huge Elephant Tuna-wraps.

Usopp eyed him carefully, knowing that he wasn't the most tactful person, but all Zoro remarked on was Luffy's appetite.

At that, Luffy found his usual cheer and sat down to feast. Despite eating at almost his usual speed, he managed to choke only twice, to which Zoro laconically remarked that he'd trained away most of his gag-reflex for Santoryu (to which Usopp was the one choking).

After a surprisingly short time, Luffy stopped gobbling. "I'm satisfied." He looked mystified, and poked the remaining food. "I'm... not hungry anymore?"

"I see why you eat so damn fast now," Zoro said, chewing his way through the fourth tuna-wrap. "I'm tired already of this fish."

"Eh. How can you get tired of _food_? Especially meat." Luffy shook his head, as if the thought displeased him. "It's mostly that I'm always hungry. But I can fit a bit –"

"No, you can't!" Usopp said, waving an admonishing finger in his face. "Or you'll get cramp later when we go back to swimming." 

Only later would he remember that scene in amazement – him, lecturing Roronoa Zoro! Or at least his body! 

"Yeah..." 

Luffy's crooked half-smirk looked far more familiar on Zoro's face than the captain's usual wide smile, and somehow it still pinched Usopp's heart.

"Oi, Luffy." Zoro laid a hand (Luffy's hand) on Luffy's (his own – Usopp was developing a headache) shoulder. "Take a nap, huh?"

"But you're not tired!"

Waving his hand before his face in a gesture Usopp would swear he'd never seen Zoro do (muscle-memory? instinct?), the swordsman stated: "You won't get tired. Not until you're starting to break."

Luffy cocked his head. 

Usopp blinked, not certain he heard correctly. "Um... Zoro?"

"Look, you don't ever really get non-hungry, huh?"

Somewhat sheepishly, Luffy shook his head. "Only after a really, really big party. For a while." Squinting, he made a gesture illustrating a small – very small – distance between his fingers. "A short while."

"Hnf, figured that I almost started chewing on my sword. It takes a lot to keep us moving these days, Capt'n."

Luffy looked down, knocking a fist against the jagged scar on his chest. "Mm. And after your extra training..."

"Yeah. Gotta be careful," Zoro agreed, reaching for the last tuna-wrap, "or I'll overtrain myself."

"Yosh!" Matter apparently settled, Luffy let himself fall backward onto the sand. "This kinda nice," he mumbled and patted his stomach, "not wanting food..."

Zoro dropped the straw hat on him and Luffy adjusted it over his face. Seconds later, he was snoring loudly.

"Wow." Usopp shook his head. "He sounds just like you."

The sharp glint of teeth was _worrying_ , especially considering what they had just discussed about Luffy's eternal hunger.

"Ahaha, ahhh, so how did the training go."

"Hn." Zoro waved an arm in front of Usopp; it kind of wobbled, and not just in the optical illusion way. "Tricky. I've found enough balance to start the motions properly, and the weight's not a problem, but it's difficult to stop." He grabbed their large water jug and made a sideways slicing motion; when his arm reached it's natural end, the weight of the jug almost seemed to pull his arm out , extending it to at least half it's normal length. "Like that, but with swords. Nearly sliced my own nose off a few times."

"Please don't. It would upset Chopper."

With a grimace, Zoro nodded. "I know. That's why I left Kitetsu aside; it's not quite recognizing me in this body, and it was getting hungry."

Sometimes, Zoro talked about his swords as if they were a bit too alive for his peace of mind. Now, Usopp hadn't minded seeing Merry's spirit at all, but to imagine that something equivalent (but not at all similar, he suspected) was inside the bloody-thirsty, cursed sword? No, thank you. 

"Come on then." Zoro got up and brushed a few crumbs from his shorts, before shrugging out of the red west. "He's still Luffy in there. I bet he won't be able to sleep more than half an hour when there's still stuff to do."

"Em... pardon?"

"Swimming." 

"What?"

 

"Hang on." Zoro stepped out of his sandals, untied the sash and gently laid the swords on the ground near Luffy. 

Unless Usopp was hallucinating it all, Zoro's sleeping body kind of... not twitched exactly; but it exhaled more softer than usual, torso turning towards the swords and hand falling towards them so that two fingers brushed against the white handle. Luffy snored on, obviously neither awake nor aware of what he was doing. 

"That is seriously creepy," Usopp muttered as he followed Zoro towards the water.

"Heh. Second time I almost had an accident?" Zoro brushed a hand over a tiny nick on Luffy's cheek; it had looked so much like a mark from a too hasty shaving that Usopp hadn't even considered how rarely either Luffy or Zoro had to shave. Or how they never seemed to have those little accidents that still plagued Usopp, despite his by now good sea-legs.

"Kitetsu almost took the edge of the hat." Seeing Usopp gape in horror, Zoro hurried to assure him. "Nothing happened! My hand twisted, turned the edge inwards. Or maybe I should say his hand."

"Your ha – Are you telling me Luffy's so fond of that hat that his body deflects attack from it on purpose? Towards _his face_?"

When Zoro only pointed at the nick in his cheek, Usopp turned his face towards the heavens. "You are both utterly insane. Which brings me back to my previous point... _You_ can't swim."

"Yes, I can. As can you." Zoro stopped at the edge of the water so that the waves lapped at his feet. "I can't even remember when I learned. You?"

"Huh? Oh, I guess I was... Hmm, no, that was just crawl-strokes... But I'm still a good teacher! I used to swim with the younger kids at home and I've taught a hundred kiddos to swim!"

Zoro took a careful step into the water, and Usopp hurried to join him, knowing far too well how Devil Fruit users seemed to magically attract all the dangers of seawater. Especially the Devil Fruit user whose body Zoro was currently inhabiting.

"Okay, maybe I only had three, but them I did teach really well."

"Yeah... but they knew the sea didn't hate them."

"Huh?"

"Look; I've got my reflexes. And Luffy's body has it's own set. But there's plenty of stuff in here too." Knocking his knuckles against his forehead, Zoro looked – well, to be honest, Usopp had never felt more that he was looking _out_ at him, from inside Luffy's body. It was more than a little disconcerting. 

"He knows the sea hates him. You don't know how that feels. I don't know how that feels."

"But Luffy's swum before! With a life-west and floating stuff, sure," Usopp said, thinking back to the little 'safety area' Franky had made for the Devil Fruit's users inclined to take a dip. "But he wasn't afraid then! And it's not like he's afraid now either, not exactly

"Yeah, in a spot that we've made safe, that's almost a part of the Sunny." Zoro gestured to the water. "This is the sea. It _hates him_ , it hates them all. Brook told me once, that the water 'sang' differently to him these days, than when he was young. And even our Captain... You know how he falls in all the time."

"Yep."

"And we have to keep dragging the idiot out."

"Yeeep."

"He still knows where it is," Zoro said, his voice so low that it barely carried over the swell of the waves. "All the time. Our captain, who can loose sight of... well, everything except his hat."

"Or us," Usopp mumbled, feeling he had to protest.

"Us? No." Zoro crossed his arms. "He doesn't need to keep an eye on us all, not all the time; not any more. But the sea... Watch him, some night, when it's storming and he's asleep. He moves," pausing, Zoro frowned in frustration, "not with it, not against it. Just. He'll move, for a while, before he wakes up. As if he can feel the storm on him – but not like Nami. He just knows it's there." He kicked up a few drops of water with his bare foot.

"And it's hungry."

Zoro nodded. "I think Robin does it too," he admitted in a low voice, "though that woman is almost impossible to read."

"But you still can't swim in Luffy's body."

"Exactly." Favoring him with a sharp smile, Zoro started to walk deeper into the water. "I want to know what it's like."

With great reluctance, Usopp followed. "You still won't be able to slice it apart," he said. Then, recalling the events on the sea-train he added, "Not in a way that causes permanent marks, at least."

"Not out here," Zoro said and strode further into the water. 

He stumbled slightly, and Usopp hurried to grab hold of him. If there was ever a moment when a sudden rip current might manifest...

But Zoro continued, undaunted, even as Luffy's legs turned noodly and he had to lean his weight fully on Usopp. 

Two dives later, Zoro was barely conscious. Usopp dragged him back to the beach, worried when they got further in and he still didn't protest, or demand to return. It was when Zoro stopped being suicidally careless with himself that you really had to start worrying.

They were about hip-deep when the splashing alerted Usopp, and he looked up to see a unusually... animatedly... worried Zoro, who hurried to the other side of Luffy's body and grabbed an arm.

"If we dry him off, it'll pass quicker," Luffy said as they hurried through the water.

Usopp nodding, not about to argue with his expertise on this matter. "Uhh, sorry about –"

"No," Luffy had his (Zoro's) blind side towards Usopp, and cranked his head around futilely a few times before giving up with a grimace, and accepting that his non-stretchy body wouldn't be able to look at Usopp and continue helping out. "I knew Zoro's want to try. It's just, the first times; it's pretty bad."

"It's always bad," Usopp said, surprised at his own voice. "It might not last as long for you, but..." He thought back to the horrible familiarity of Luffy's body hanging too limply in his arms; of the boneless exhaustion and strange paralysis. Strange, but not unexpected.

"It's the same." Zoro was beginning to take a few stumbling steps on his own, the water level only around their ankles now. "Just the same." He coughed, spitting away some water and staggered away from Usopp. Taking a weak (and how strange was that not to imagine Zoro being) grip on Luffy's shoulders, Zoro glared up at him.

So that, Usopp thought as he silently stepped back, giving the captain and unofficial first mate, a bit of place, was how it looked when you looked _through_ your own face. Huh.

When he returned with a large, fluffy towel, Zoro no longer leaned so heavily on his captain; from the tone of it, they were arguing. Usopp kept silent, knowing that this wasn't his fight. Knowing, too, that it was not a secret they wanted to keep from him, and that thought warmed. 

"You can't do anything. You can't move, you can't swim, you can barely breathe – think!"

The straw hat looked odd above green hair, but the angle it was pulled to, the shadow it cast over his eyes; that was familiar. "I'm used to it."

Zoro snarled. "That's the problem! You're so used to it – you can feel it in your head, can't you? You can't swim, you grow heavy, your breath is pressed down, away. Until you only feel it hating you."

"So?"

"Why aren't you doing that near the Sunny? Why can you splash around like that?"

Luffy squirmed a bit, although he stopped immediately when Zoro wavered a little; to a connoisseurs eye, an altogether unconvincing performance, but then Luffy wasn't the cleverest in such matters.

"You're there. And Usopp –" they both glanced his way, and he gave them an awkward little wave "– and Sanji and Nami and Franky. And the Sunny herself; she looks after us."

"And I'm not here now?" Zoro put a hand on the long scar before him, tracing it with Luffy's hand once, before coming to a rest above the heart. "This isn't good enough?"

"I _am_ learning to swim." Luffy's eyes flicked away, only for a moment, but enough for both his crew members to note. "It's just – I can still feel the sea."

"Then feel me too," Zoro said and beat his fist lightly against the spot over the heart. "I'm here – even if I'm not there, I'm here," he poked the scar, hard, "just like the Sunny is both there and not when you swim along her hull. And Usopp is too."

"I know you are."

They were standing in the surf, the sun bearing brightly down on them and casting a small puddle of shadow around their feet, and it hit Usopp that he had never seen them quite like this: never seen Zoro look down at his captain with such a look of confusion, of hesitance in his trust. Had never witnessed a moment where Luffy needed to plead with his swordsman for this, for the gift – and burden – of faith. 

"If you know," someone said and it only slowly dawned on Usopp that the voice belonged to himself, that he was daring to walk closer despite the tension hanging so thick. "Why aren't you letting us help? I can drag you up if you sink. Zoro, I mean, Zoro's body –"

"I won't let you sink." There, that was him; the utter confidence and the knowledge that his captain would believe him. "I. Won't. Let. You." Each word, Zoro punctuated with a poke of his finger against the scar. "Swim, Luffy. I'm there, so just swim."

"Swim," Usopp echoed, "and let us carry you. Please?"

It was Zoro's one eye that closed, his easily-frowning brow that wrinkled. But it was Luffy's brilliant smile that broke over his face, that irresistible, open grin which was yet to change the fate of the world – but it would, that Usopp did not doubt for one moment.

"Of course I will! You're my crew!"

"Yeah, Captain." Zoro allowed one of his own, rare, smiles of fondness to escape, before he reached out for the towel in Usopp's hand, pulling it over his shoulders. 

Usopp cracked his knuckles. "Remember how it goes, Luffy?"

"Out! Down! Up!"

* * *

They returned to the Thousand Sunny only when the sea caught fire by the last, precious sunlight.

Zoro jogged along the beach, the parasol over his shoulder and the picnic basked in the crook of his arm.

He had to jog, to keep up with the swimmers.


End file.
